System and method for tracking alerts

ABSTRACT

A method and apparatus for generating alerts which prompt a customer representative to initiate communications with a customer relative to the alert. Further provided is a tracking template which is provided to the customer representative, whereby the customer representative can easily provide an input through the tracking template which quickly identifies an action status relative to a given alert. A plurality of different types of alerts can be generated, and these different alerts can be given different priority levels corresponding to different levels of escalation within a management structure for an organization.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application claims benefit from U.S. Provisional PatentApplication Ser. No. 60/752,487, filed Dec. 20, 2005, entitled SYSTEMAND METHOD FOR TRACKING ALERTS, which is incorporated herein byreference, and the present application claims benefit from U.S.Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/757,853, filed Jan. 9, 2006,entitled SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR TRACKING ALERTS, which is incorporatedherein by reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a system and method of providing forthe generation, and management of alerts which can be utilized bycustomer representatives, and which provides for tracking the customerrepresentatives activities in connection with the generated alerts.

BACKGROUND

For large organizations it can be difficult to implement systems thathave the ability to quickly and efficiently utilize crucial client orcustomer information that could help customer representatives of suchorganizations identify potential opportunities to cross-sell and deepenclient relationships. Financial institutions are an example of one typeof organization where the ability to track and utilize customerinformation, customer activity, and customer account information, canprovide many opportunities to enhance and broaden the relationshipbetween the financial institution and the customer.

In the context of the discussion herein it is helpful to keep in mindthat a wide range of different types of data can provide usefulinformation that can provide trigger points for initiating some type ofbeneficial contact with a customer. In the broadest terms any suchinformation can be referred to herein as customer information. However,customer information can include a wide range of different types ofinformation. One type of customer information is customer accountinformation. Customer account information can include an identificationof all accounts in which a customer has an interest. In the context of afinancial institution, these accounts could include brokerage accounts,bank accounts, loans, 401(k) accounts, IRA accounts, and a myriad ofother possible types of financial accounts. The customer account datacan also include an identification of financial goals and purposesassociated with a particular financial account. For example, onebrokerage account might be provide for long term growth, while anotherfinancial account might be for short term capital preservation.

Another type of customer information is customer personal information.This information could include information such a customer's age,customer's financial expertise, and a record of a customer personalevents, such a birthdates, number of children, or grandchildren, anddifferent milestone events, such as graduations, marriages,anniversaries, births etc.

It has been recognized that quick access to the right client data canprovide customer representatives within a financial institution withinsights into client needs, and acting upon such information can resultin improved financial performance for the customer, and improved revenuegeneration for the financial institution.

Some prior systems have previously been implemented which provide foranalyzing customer information, and based on the customer informationgenerating alerts which can be utilized by employees of the organizationas a basis for initiating contact with a customer. However, some suchprior systems have lacked, among other things, the ability toefficiently and effectively track the utilization of such alerts.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a system of theinvention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of different modules ofan alert computer of the invention.

FIG. 3 illustrates portions of different customer representative alertpages according to an embodiment of the invention herein.

FIG. 4 illustrates an embodiment of a method of the present invention.

FIG. 5 illustrates an embodiment of a supervisory alert summary page.

FIG. 6 illustrates an embodiment of a selected customer representativealert summary page of an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 7 is a flow chart illustrating an embodiment of a method of thepresent invention.

FIG. 8 is a flow chart illustrating an embodiment of a method of thepresent invention.

FIG. 9 is a flow chart illustrating an embodiment of a method of thepresent invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

An embodiment of a system and method herein, provide an alert generationmodule which operates to analyze customer data, and based on theanalysis generate alerts which are provided to customer representative.In response to receiving an alert the customer representative can take afollow up action, and this follow up action can be tracked using atracking template. These elements of an embodiment of the invention willbe discussed more fully below.

FIG. 1 shows a system 100 of an embodiment of the invention. This system100 will be described in the context of a financial institution such asbrokerage company, but the basic operation could be extended to othertypes of organizations. The system 100 includes a number of customerrepresentative computers 102 . . . N. As is widely known a computer ascommonly implemented, and used in computer networks will generallyinclude a number of well-known components. These components can includea communication, or system, bus or other communication mechanism forcommunicating information between elements of the computer, and aprocessor coupled with bus for processing information. Computer systemscan also include a main memory, such as a random access memory (RAM) orother dynamic storage device, coupled to bus for storing information andinstructions to be executed by processor. The main memory also may beused for storing temporary variables or other intermediate informationduring execution of instructions to be executed by processor. A computersystem can further includes a read only memory (ROM) or other staticstorage device coupled to bus for storing static information andinstructions for the computer processor. A storage device, such as amagnetic disk or optical disk, is frequently provided and coupled to busfor storing information and instructions.

A display can be coupled to the bus displaying information to a computeruser. An input device, including alphanumeric and other keys, can becoupled to the bus for communicating information and command selectionsto the processor. Another type of user input device is cursor control,such as a mouse, a trackball, or cursor direction keys for communicatingdirection information and command selections to processor and forcontrolling cursor movement on the display. The computer can alsoinclude a communication interface coupled to bus. The communicationinterface provides a two-way data communication coupling to the network111.

One or more processors in a multi-processing arrangement may also beemployed to execute the sequences of instructions contained in mainmemory. In alternative embodiments, hard-wired circuitry may be used inplace of, or in combination with, software instructions to implement theinvention.

The customer representative computers 102 . . . N are connected to acommunication network 111. The communication network could be a LAN,WAN, or other communication network such as the interne.

Additionally, multiple supervisor computers 112 . . . N can also becoupled with the network. Also coupled with the network is an alertscomputer 114. The alerts computer could be implemented as a stand aloneapplication server, or it could be part of a main frame computer, orother general purpose computer where one or more of the processors areprogrammed to implement the operations discussed herein. Indeed theoperations of the alerts computer could be distributed across multiplecomputers. The alerts computer will be provided with access to a numberof different types of data. These different types of data are shown as acustomer personal data database 116, a customer account informationdatabase 118, and a market information database 120. These databasescould of course be implemented as a single database, or in someinstances the data could be provided as a data stream as opposed to arelatively static type of data. For example, some of the marketinformation data could be provided as a data stream. The databases couldbe stored in non-volatile memory storage systems such as a disk drive,or other memory storage device.

The alert computer is programmed to provide an alerts analyzer module122 which operates to analyze the relevant information, and to apply aseries of rules to the analysis of the data, where depending on therules and the underlying information, alerts are generated. The alertcomputer also includes an alert management module 124. The alertmanagement module 124, provides for the transmission of the alerts tocustomer representative computers 102 . . . N, and manages and updatesan alert tracking database 126. The alert tracking database could beincorporated into one of the previously discussed databases, or it couldbe implemented as a separate stand alone database.

FIG. 2 shows an expanded view of aspects of an embodiment of an alertscomputer 114. It should be recognized that alerts computer whilepotentially being a much more powerful computer than the customerrepresentative computer described above, would in one embodimentnonetheless include the same basic elements as the customerrepresentative computer. Further, the discussion below will refer tomodules or sub-modules of the alerts computer. These modules orsub-modules can be sets of instructions which a processor, or in somecases processors, of the alerts computer are programmed to execute;specifically, different sub-modules of the Alert tracker module 124 areshown, and different sub-modules of the alerts analyzer module 122 areshown. It should be noted that the embodiment shown in FIG. 2 could beimplemented in a wide range of different ways, where various othermodules, or sub-modules, would be utilized, and some of the sub-modulesshown in FIG. 2 could be excluded for example.

At this point the discussion of the operation of the different modulesshown in FIG. 2 will be provided. The alert analyzer module 122 includesa transaction sub-module 125 which operates to generate alerts based onclient initiated actions that could lead to potential businessopportunities to make beneficial recommendations to the customer. Forexample, a customer initiated transfer of an account into a financialinstitution, can generate a transaction type of alert where a customerrepresentative is provided with an alert which prompts the customerrepresentative to contact the customer. The sale of a large stockposition in an account is another transactional event that could producean alert to contact a customer to discuss possible financial strategiesand plans for the proceeds of the stock sale. Another transactional typeof alert can be generated where a customer does research on a website ofthe financial institution. For example, many financial institutionsprovide extensive research tools on their websites for their customers,monitoring of the customer's research activities, can indicate thatcustomer has a particular financial planning question or need, and inselected circumstances an alert can be generated which prompts acustomer representative to contact the customer to inquire aboutproviding possible assistance to the customer.

A portfolio module 128 can also be provided which operates analyzecustomer information, and specifically customer account information todetermine if a portfolio based alert should be generated. Portfolioalerts generally relate to identifying investment opportunities whichcan be identified based on a customer account's holdings. For example,in a situation where customer brokerage account is identified as havingperformance below a predetermined threshold level, a portfolio basedalert can be generated to prompt a customer representative to contactthe customer and offer to provide financial planning assistance. In asituation where the portfolio module 128 identifies that a particularaccount has a large over concentration in a particular stock, an alertcan be generated prompting a customer representative to contact thecustomer to advise the customer as to risks associated with overconcentration of an investment in a single stock.

A customer event module 130 provides for analyzing customer profileinformation and other customer events and generates event alerts basedon such analysis. For a customer service experience event, such as acustomer complaint, or complex customer interaction with a serviceprovider of the financial institution an event alert can be generatedand provided to the customer representative to prompt the customerrepresentative to contact the customer. The customer event module 130can also generate alerts that prompt a customer representative tocontact a customer when the customer is identified as havingparticipated in particular event. For example, the customer might haveattended a live training seminar, or might have attended a web basedtraining seminar.

Additionally, a life stage module 132 can be provided, where the lifestage module 132 reviews data to identify major events reflected in thecustomer data that may affect a customer's investment objectives orinvestment needs. These events could include for example, a marriage,death, birth, relocation, an anniversary etc. In response to such eventsthe life stage module 132 can generate an event alert to prompt acustomer representative to take some action to initiate communicationwith the customer.

The business module 134 can generate automated communications with acustomer, such as sending an account statement or a trade confirmationstatement.

The alert tracking module 124 includes a number of sub-modules. Thealert database module 136 manages the reading from, and the writing to,the alert data database. The alert transmission module 138 manages theidentification of customer representatives and supervisors, andgenerates the different alert pages which can be are transmitted to thecustomer representative computers and supervisor computers. The Alertfiltering module 140 can allow for different user selected filtering tobe applied to generation of the alert pages, such that selected types ofalerts can be excluded from presentation to the customerrepresentatives, and the filtering module can also be programmed toapply different system wide rules for the filtering out of certainselected types of alerts. The alert prioritization modules 142 can applydifferent rules in terms of different rankings for the presentation ofalerts to the end users of the system. The prioritization of the alertscould be managed, or determined, by either the end user of the alerts,for example the customer representative, and/or the prioritization ofthe alerts could be determined by a manager who wants to control theprioritization of the alerts. Indeed, as will be discussed in moredetail below, one of the benefits of an embodiment of the inventionherein is that it provides for the collection of extensive dataregarding the processing of alerts, and can record the results of takingaction with respect to an alert. Overtime analysis of the variousoutcomes related to the processing of alert can provide valuableinformation identifying those alerts, and follow up responses to alertswhich are most effective in terms of improving the service to thecustomer.

The Alert escalation module 144 applies different rules to the differentalerts, such that certain alerts can be escalated or presented todifferent supervisory levels of the organization. The alert expirationmodule 146 is programmed to manage the expiration of the differentalerts. The alert tracking module 148 manages the presentation of alerttracking templates to the customer representatives, and receives thecustomer representatives input to through the tracking template. Thesuppression module 150 operates to provide for the suppression of aparticular alert, or a certain type of alert, for a period of time. Forexample, in a situation where a customer representative has taken actionwith respect to a particular alert, and the customer has indicated thatthey do not want to take action with respect to a particularrecommendation, then similar alerts pertaining to the same issue can besuppressed for a given period of time. The suppression type of operationis discussed in more detail below.

Table 1 is provided below to illustrate a number of different specificalerts which could be provided for using an alert analyzer module asdescribed above. The “Category” column identifies the specific categorytype of the alert.

TABLE 1 No. Category Alert Name Description 1 Event Sudden Liquidationof >=50% Liquidation of portfolio value to cash within 2 weeks 2Portfolio Under- Under-performing Performing portfolio for 3 monthsPortfolio straight against benchmark (S&P, Index, etc.) 3 Portfolio MF(mutual Under-performing fund) clients with all equity Suggestionholding 4 Portfolio SER (security 10% of portfolio equity rating)downgraded 2 levels Downgrade or to very low level ratings (D/F) 5 LifeStage Birthday Birthday of the primary contact within a household(expire after 2 weeks) 6 Transactional Large TOA TOA out of >=20% of(transfer order portfolio value authorization) Out 7 PortfolioConcentrated Holding one equity Position position >=20% of portfoliovalue 8 Event Product/Offer Clients who requested Interest product/offerpackages 9 Event Trading Clients who Threshold experienced a surge intrading activities 10 Portfolio Low Grade HHs (households) that MutualFunds have at least 20% of portfolio value invested in 1 or 2Morningstar rated mutual funds 11 Transactional Verification of HHs thathave had a Deposits “Verification of Deposits” requested recently. Thisis a good indicator that your client might be applying for amortgage/HELOC home equity line of credit). 12 Transactional LargeDeposit Cash, Stock, or TOA deposits of >=20% of portfolio value

The above table provides examples of different alerts, and is meant tobe illustrative, but of course a wide range of different alerts could beutilized. For example, some financial intuitions can provide for accountmanagement services. In some situations, for example in accounts wherethere have been high capital gains distributions, the customer may wantto consider account management services to help reduce future taxliabilities due to capital gains. Thus, an alert can be generated wherean account has a relatively high capital gains distribution. Additionalalerts can be provided for where it appears that a customer might havean interest in securities lending services, corporate services, orgeneral service alerts, for example, where a negotiated margin discountis about expire.

The analysis of customer data and the generation of alerts can be acomputationally demanding process. Additionally, as will be discussed inmore detail below the providing of alerts to customer representativesshould be done in a selective manner so as to reduce the likelihood of acustomer representative becoming inundated with so many alerts that thevalue of the alerts becomes diminished. Thus, it is advantageous todevelop a set of rules which provide for frequency intervals ofanalyzing data to make determinations as to when to provide for thegeneration of alerts, and further it is also advantageous to providerules for expiring alerts and in some cases suppressing alerts. Table 2shows an example of an embodiment of a table of rules to which can beused in connection with the generation, and tracking of some exemplaryalerts.

TABLE 2 Run Alert name cycle Expiration Suppression Birthday Weekly 30Days None Cash Weekly 30 Days  90 Days Concentration Concentrated Weekly30 Days  90 Days Position Large Deposit Daily 30 Days None Large Daily30 Days None Withdrawal Large TOA In Daily 30 Days None Large TOA Daily30 Days None Out Low Grade Weekly 30 Days 180 Days Mutual Funds MFWeekly 30 Days 180 Days Suggestion SER Weekly 30 Days None DowngradeSudden Weekly 30 Days None Liquidation Trading Weekly 30 Days  90 DaysThreshold Under- Weekly 30 Days 180 Days Performing PortfolioVerification Daily 30 Days None of Deposits

The first column in Table 2 shows the name of a particular alert. Thesecond column of the Table 2 shows the frequency with which a review ofcustomer information is run to identify whether the corresponding alertshould be generated. For example, customer data will be reviewed weeklyto identify situations where it is appropriate to send the customerrepresentative an alert regarding the fact that the customer has anupcoming birthday. For a large deposit alert, however, the customer datawill be reviewed daily to identify situations where a large deposit hasbeen made. The expiration column identifies the amount of time that analert will remain active. An active alert can be closed where a customerrepresentative indicates that some action has been taken in connectionwith the alert. In one embodiment of the invention when a specific alertexpires then the specific alert will no longer be presented to acustomer representative. The suppression column of Table 2 refers to anoperation which is different than alert expiration. Suppression preventsalerts that have been closed from being represented to a customerrepresentative for a given period of time. For example, if a customerrepresentative receives an underperforming portfolio alert for acustomer, and the customer representative contacts the customer anddetermines that the client does not want to make changes in theportfolio allocation, then the next time the Underperforming portfolioanalysis is done, the corresponding alerts are generated, the customerrepresentative would likely receive another underperforming portfolioalert. In order to avoid repeatedly generating alerts on the same issue,the suppression module can operate to suppress the generation of analert for a given period of time where the customer does not want totake a recommended action.

FIG. 3 shows portions of images which could be displayed on a customerrepresentative's computer monitor. More specifically, for one embodimentherein, the images represent portions of pages which are displayed by abrowser running on the customer representative's computer. Thus, forexample the page 302 could be an HTML type of browser page, where linksand commands can be included in the page. The user of the computer canthen activate the links or commands by virtue of clicking a mouse orsimilar input device over different areas of the page 302. Additionally,the user can input different selection criteria or other data intodifferent fields provided in the page 302. The page 302, contains a toplevel selection row 304, where a customer representative can select adifferent customer representative application. In one embodiment thisselection will be done by the customer representative using a mouse tomove a cursor icon 305 over the desired tab and then selecting thedesired tab using the mouse. As shown in page 302 the customerrepresentative has selected the highlighted tab 306 corresponding toalerts. The selection of the alerts tab 306, then results in the page302 being a customer representative alerts page. The tabs adjacent tothe alerts tab 306, correspond to other customer representativeapplications. The customer representative applications could be programswhich are loaded on the customer representative's computer, orapplications which reside on a central server which the customerrepresentative computer accesses through the network 111.

In response to the customer representative selecting the alerts tab 306,the alerts applications (running in a processor on the alerts computer)operates to provide the alerts information which is provided to customerrepresentative's computer, and the customer representative is providedwith access to the operational features of the alerts application. Inone embodiment the alerts applications will include an alerts managermodule 124 and alerts analyzer module 122 as described above. In such anembodiment the alert computer generates pages and/or data which areprovided to a browser running the customer representative computer, andthe browser then displays customer representative alert pages which areshown on the computer monitor of the customer representative computer.

When a customer representative has logged on to a computer, and selectedthe alerts tab, the alerts computer will then access the alerts database126 and generate the customer representatives alerts page 302. In someembodiments each customer representative will have specific customersthat they are responsible for, thus the alerts provided for eachcustomer representative will be correspond to the specific customers,which the particular customer representative is responsible for. Thealerts page 302 includes a contact column 308. The contact column isshown with the title of HH Name. The HH name is a reference tohousehold, and the column provides a name or other identifyinginformation for a contact person associated the identified alert. In oneembodiment a customer representative could use a mouse, or other userinput device, of the customer representative computer to select on aname shown in contact column additional information could be providedregarding the contact person for the corresponding alert. The alerthistory column 310 provides an icon where the customer representativecan select the icon to receive a history from the alert database 126 forall alerts created for the corresponding household. It should be notedthat the system and method could provide for generating and groupingalerts at an individual account level, or accounts could be grouped at ahousehold level and then a user could drill down by clinking on linksassociated with a given alert to determine which specific accountassociated with a given household was the basis for the alert. In oneembodiment the alert tracking database 126 stores information for aplurality of alerts generated by the alerts analyzer module 122. Thealerts tracking database 126 can provide a status action field for eachof the alerts, and the status action field can provide for one aplurality of different status conditions for the corresponding alert.These different status conditions can correspond to the different alertstatus conditions which the customer can select from in the trackingtemplate 406 as shown in FIG. 4, which is discussed in more detailbelow.

The image 311 shows a portion of an alert history page which would bedisplayed on customer representative computer display in response to acustomer representative selecting a history icon corresponding to theFleming & Little household which is shown in column 310 of page 302.This alert history page can then display alert history information forthe corresponding household. Page 302 also includes a customerrelationship application (CRM application) access column 312, which hasa header MARS HH link. The customer representative can select the iconin the CRM column 312, and they will be provided with access to a CRMapplication which provides access to extensive customer relationshipdata information, and the customer representative can enter new relevantinformation, and review previously entered information. The create datecolumn 314 identifies the date on which the corresponding alert wascreated. The alert type column 316 identifies the type of alert which isshown in the corresponding row. The customer representative can selecton a given alert type shown in column 316 and will be provided with adefinition of the given alert. The alert description column 318 providesa detailed description of the underlying data and analysis which was thebasis for the corresponding alert.

The My Last Action column 320 provides information as to the most recentaction taken by the customer representative in connection with thecorresponding alert. In the case of the page 302 all of the entries incolumn 320 are blank which would indicate that no action has been takenin connection with any of the displayed alerts. If an action had beentaken with respect to an alert, then the action taken would beidentified in the My Last Action column 320. The Update Action column322 provides icons where a customer representative can select on an iconand an action for the corresponding alert can be updated, as will bediscussed in more detail below. The page 302 also includes a Last ActionDate column 324 which displays the last date of an action taken inconnection with a corresponding alert. In one embodiment the Last ActionDate column will default to the date when the corresponding alert wasfirst made available to the customer representative, until such time asthe customer representative indicates that some action has been takenwith respect to the corresponding alert. In some embodiments the time atwhich a customer representative provides an indication that some actionhas been taken will be recorded in terms of the date, and the exact timeat which the entry was provided indicating that some action was taking.In this way realtime data can be provided to a supervisor, so that theactual time of data entry is recorded.

The page 302 also includes a customize date box 303 which allows a userto input date criteria which acts to filter the alert information shownin the customer representative alert page 302.

FIG. 4 shows a series images 400 which illustrate a method of anembodiment of the invention. The images show portions of different pageswhich would be displayed on a customer representative's computermonitor. Image 402 shows a portion of a customer representative alertspage, which could be shown on a display of a customer representativecomputer. The page of image 402 would include links as described aboveand generally corresponds to the type of alert page 302 described above.However, for purposes of illustration only a portion of the page whichwould actually be shown on the display is shown in image panel 402. Inresponse to the display of the page the customer representative canreview the displayed alerts, and make a determination as to which alertshe or she will take an action in response to. In the operation shown inFIG. 4, the customer representative has selected the update action icon404, to indicate that the customer representative has taken some actionin response to the corresponding alert, which in this case would atrading thresholds alerts for the household identified as Bostick &Tucker. In response to the customer representative selecting the icon404 an alert tracking template 406 is generated and displayed on thecustomer representative computer monitor. The alert tracking template406 then provides a number of predefined categories where a user canselect from the predefined categories to characterize the status ofactions taken in response to the corresponding alert. The users input,typically provided by clicking a mouse on the predefined category thatcorresponds to the change in the action status is received by the alertscomputer, and the alert tracking database is updated to reflect thechange in the action status for the corresponding alert.

The alert tracking template 406 shown in FIG. 4 provides six differentcategories which a customer representative can select from tocharacterize the status of action relative the corresponding alert. Afirst field of the alert tracking template 406 is an “Attempting” field,which a customer representative can select when the customerrepresentative is in the process of attempting to reach the client, buthas not yet made actual contact with the customer. A second category ofthe alert tracking template is an “In Progress” category which customerrepresentative can select to indicate that communications with thecustomer are on-going in connection with the corresponding alert. Forexample, in the case of the Trading Threshold alert, the customer mightbe considering opening a different type of account which provides fordifferent pricing options for accounts with high trading volumes, or thecustomer might be considering whether they would like to opt for amanaged account, which would provide for some assistance in the managingof the account etc.

The tracking template 406 also includes a “Closed—Canceled” categorywhere the customer representative can select this category to indicatethat alert has been cancelled because no action was warranted for thecorresponding alert. The template 406 can also include a“Closed—Unsuccessful” attempts category where a customer representativecan select this category to indicate that alert has been cancelled dueto an inability to reach the customer. The template 406 can also includea “Closed—No Further Action Required” category where a customerrepresentative can select this category to indicate that the alert hasbeen cancelled after a successful discussion with the client. Forexample, in response to a prolonged period of poor performance in anaccount, an alert could be generated, and the customer representativewould receive the alert and in response contact the customer withfinancial advice that could provide the customer with better performancein the account. In successful cases, the customer would take actionconsistent with the financial advice.

The template 406 can also provide a “Closed—Opportunity Created”category. This category could be selected where a customerrepresentative in response to an alert contacted a customer, and as aresult of this contact additional opportunities to generate furtherbusiness was identified.

After the customer representative has selected the field whichcorresponds to the appropriate category, the customer representative canselect a refresh icon 408, which will result in the page 402 beingregenerated to reflect an update in the My last action column, which canbe described more generally as a status column, would show the updatedinformation corresponding the customer representative's selection in thetemplate 406. For example, the updated page 410 shows that “In progress”status 412 in the status column 416 corresponding to the selection 414in the template 406.

The operation of the system 100 in connection with the methodillustrated by FIG. 4 would include a customer representative initiallylogging on to a customer representative computer. The Alert analyzerwould operate to generate alerts based on an analysis of customer data;this customer data could include for example specific personalinformation for a customer, or customer account information, such as theunderlying investments held in a customer account. The Alert managermodule would maintain the records of the alerts in the alert trackingdatabase. In response to the customer representative selecting thealerts application tab, the alerts computer would generate a customeralerts page and transmit it, or the underlying alert information, to thecustomer representative's computer, where the alerts page would bedisplayed. In response to the customer representative interacting withthe alerts page to select the update action icon, the tracking templatewould be displayed on the customer representative's computer. Thecustomer representatives input to the tracking template would then betransmitted to the alerts computer, and the input information would beused to update the alert tracking database. The updated information inthe alert tracking database can then be used to provide updated alertinformation to the customer representative, or to the customerrepresentative's supervisor.

In the page 410 many of the entries in the status column are blank whichwould generally indicate that customer representative has not taken anyaction with respect to the corresponding alert.

FIG. 5 shows a supervisor alert summary page 502 which could be shown ona display of a supervisor computer 112. Fundamentally, the supervisorcomputer can be the same type of computer as the customer representativecomputer, however, when a supervisor logs onto the computer, thecomputer network will provide different applications, and access, to asupervisor than to a customer representative. The supervisor alertsummary page could be for example an HTML page which is displayed by abrowser running on the supervisor computer. The Alert computer 114 cangenerate the alert summary page and provide this page to a supervisorcomputer 112 of the system 100. The alert summary page 502 includes atop level selection row 504, where a supervisor can select betweendifferent supervisor applications. In an embodiment of the system andmethod herein a supervisor would typically supervise a number ofdifferent customer representatives. In the alert summary page 502 thetab FC performance 506 has been selected. The term FC is an acronymcorresponding to financial consultant, which could be one type ofcustomer representative. In connection with the selection of FCPerformance tab 506, the alert summary page 502 is generated by thealert computer and transmitted to the supervisor computer 112. In oneembodiment the alert summary page 502 will show information relating tothe activity, or performance, of one or more of the customerrepresentatives who are supervised by the supervisor, and show a summaryof alert information for each of these customer representatives.

For example, the alert summary page 502 includes an action taken statustable 508, and an Alert type status table 510. The action status table508, includes a column 512 identifying action taken categories.Specifically, the action taken status column contains rows whichcorrespond to the different action categories which are provided for inthe alert tracking template 406. The action status table 508 alsocontains a customer representative row 514 with column entries whichidentify the customer representatives which are supervised by thesupervisor who is logged onto the supervisor computer 112. The Actionstatus table 508 then provides a matrix grid where a supervisor canquickly identify the status of activity for a given customerrepresentative relative to alerts which have been provided to thecustomer representative. For example, the customer representativeidentified as KLAR in the customer representative row 514 is shown ashaving received a total of 60 Alerts, and KLAR has not take action withrespect to 49 of the alerts, has made 3 entries in an alert trackingtemplate showing an attempt to make contact with a customer in responseto an alert, and the various state of activity regarding the otheralerts can be seen in the column corresponding the KLAR customerrepresentative. Similarly the state of various actions take by the othercustomer representatives identified in row 514 are readily observable.By reviewing the Action taken status table 508 a supervisor can quicklyand easily view the status of action taken by the customerrepresentatives relative to the alerts. Periodic review of such a tablecan improve the supervision of customer representatives, and spotsituations where a customer representative is not taking adequate actionrelative to alerts.

In one embodiment the information shown in the alert summary page 502can provide HTML type links which a user can click on to obtain moreinformation. For example, a supervisor could click on the identifier ofa customer representative such as KLAR, and the supervisor's computerwould then be provided with a page showing alert details for thecustomer representative corresponding to the identifier KLAR. Inaddition a supervisor could click on an entry in the Action taken statuscolumn 512 to see a list of all the alerts which have a most recentaction status corresponding to the selected action status. For example,if a supervisor were to select the “Closed—Canceled” entry in the ActionTaken Status column 512, then the alert computer 114 could generate apage showing all the alerts which have a most recent action of“Closed—Canceled”.

The Alert types status table 510 operates in manner analogous to theaction taken status table 508, except that the Action Taken Statuscolumn 512 is replaced with an Alert Type column 516. The Alert typecolumn 516 contains rows for the different possible types of alerts, anda customer representative row 518 is provided which identifies thedifferent customer representatives which are under supervision. Thetable then provides a grid which identifies the different types ofalerts which have been provided to the different customerrepresentatives. The supervisor can then select from the differententries of the Alert type column 516 to see a detailed list of all thealerts of the corresponding type. The page 502 also includes a refreshicon 518, where a user can select on the refresh icon. In response to aselection on the refresh icon the alert computer 114, refers to thealert tracking database 126 to obtain the most up to date informationfor the alerts, and provide the user with a refreshed alert summary page502. Thus, providing a supervisor with a tool to view actual real-timereports showing the customer representatives progress in responding toan alert.

The page 502 also includes a customize date box 520 which allows a userto input date criteria which acts to filter the alert information shownto the supervisor in the alert summary page 502.

FIG. 6 shows a supervisor selected customer representative summary page600. The summary page 600 is provided in response to a supervisorselecting a specific one of the customer representatives shown in thetables 508 or 510 in page 502. The summary page provides a supervisorwith specific information for the selected customer representative sothat the supervisor can view the selected customer representative'sprogress against available alerts and actual alerts to provide potentialcoaching opportunities. Specifically, column 602 shows the action takenstatus for the available alerts which have been provided to the customerrepresentative identified as 3BJT. The page 600 corresponds to the pagewhich would be displayed where a supervisor selected the customerrepresentative identified as 3BJT in the page 502.

The row 604 of page 600 identifies the various different types of alertswhich have been provided to the customer representative 3BJT. Thenumerical entries in the table 606 provided by the column 602, and therow 604 then provide entries which identify the action status for eachof the different types of alerts that have been provided to the customerrepresentative. The page 600 operates such that a user can select on oneof the numerical entries in the table 606, and lower portion of the page602 can show more information corresponding the selected alert andaction status entry. For example, page 600 illustrates a situation wherea user has selected on the numeral 3 identified with callout number 608.In response to the selection on the number 3 (corresponding to “NoAction Taken” and the alert type “Cash Concentration”) informationcorresponding to the selected action status and corresponding alert isobtained, and the page 600 can be updated to include the requestedinformation alert specific information, as is shown in the lower portion610 of the page 600. The supervisor can then review specific details ofthe corresponding alerts.

FIG. 7 illustrates a method 700 of an embodiment of the invention. Themethod includes a providing 702 an alert in a page of alerts which canbe viewed on a customer representative's computer. It should be notedthat the flow chart illustrated in FIG. 7 includes numerous blocks whichrefer to SA. In the context of FIG. 7, “SA” is a reference to thedisplay of sales alerts, such as an alert shown on the customerrepresentative alerts page described above in connection with FIG. 3 forexample. The customer representatives input through the customerrepresentative's computer is then monitored, to determine 704 an actionstatus for the alert. This monitoring could for example includemonitoring a customer representative's input through an alert trackingtemplate as described above. If an input from the customerrepresentative indicates that the action status for the alert isclosed—canceled 706, then the alert is removed 708 from display in thepage of alerts. If the input from the customer representative indicatesthat action was taken, then a determination is made as to whethercontact was made with the customer 710. If contact was made, then adetermination is made as to whether the communication with the customerrepresentative resulted a closing of the alert, such that no furtheraction is required 712. In this situation the customer representativecould also be prompted to create 714 an entry in a customer relationshipdatabase (CRM) to document the substance of the communication with thecustomer that resulted in closing the alert.

If the communication with the customer resulted in the creation 716 ofan opportunity for further action in connection with the alert, then thealert can be removed 708 from view in the page, and the customerrepresentative can be prompted to follow a sales process in connectionwith the created opportunity, and to document the substance of thecommunications in a customer relationship database 718.

If the determination 710 that action was taken in connection with thealert, but that no contact was made with the customer, then the page canbe updated to show that the action status for the alert is in progress720. The customer representative can then be prompted to document 722the contact attempt in the customer relationship database. When anattempt has been made to contact the customer, the alert can still bedisplayed on the alert page with an indication that the action inconnection with the alert is in progress. The customer representativecan make a determination 724 as to whether a subsequent attempt shouldbe made. If the customer representative decides that no more attemptswill be made in connection with the alert 726, then the alert can beremoved 726 from the page of alerts, and the customer representative canthen document 722 the reason for closing the alert.

If it is determined 704 that no action has been taken in connection withan alert, then the alert can be maintained 728 on the alert page.

FIG. 8 shows another method 800 of an embodiment of the invention. Themethod 800 illustrates a prioritization of alerts, which facilitates asupervisor efficiently reviewing and managing the performance ofmultiple customer representatives using an alert escalation process.Initially a customer representative input is received 802 through analert tracking template which indicates that an alert has beenclosed—cancelled, or an alert might have a corresponding status whichindicates that no action has been taken for a predetermined amount oftime. For example, one type of alert might allow a customerrepresentative three working days to take action, prior to consideringthe alert for escalation to a supervisor. Based on either the fact thatno action has been taken, or based on the status input by the customerrepresentative, a determination is made as to whether the alert shouldbe escalated, for example by presenting an alert in a supervisor'ssummary page of alerts. In one embodiment the different alerts can bebroadly categorized as either a high priority alert (key alert), or alower priority alert. The process of 800 provides for making adetermination 804 as to whether an alert is a key alert, if it isdetermined that a particular alert is not a key alert, then adetermination 808 is made as to how long ago the alert was generated. Ifthe alert is more than a predetermined amount of time old (e.g. is thealert more than 4 weeks old) then the alert will be will be removed 810from the page of alerts provided to the customer representative. If thealert is relatively new then the alert will be maintained 812.

If the alert is determined to be a key type of alert then if the alerthas a status of closed—canceled 814 according to a customerrepresentative input, then the alert will be displayed 816 in summaryalert page to a supervisor. If the status of the alert is that no actionhas been taken, then a determination 818 is made as to whether the alerthas characteristics which causes it to surpass a first escalationthreshold. For example, for a first type of key alert if no action hasbeen taken for period of time exceeding one week, then the alert can beescalated such that it is displayed 816 on a supervisor's summary pageof alerts. Where a determination is made that an alert should beescalated to a supervisor's alert summary page, a second level ofanalysis can be applied. This second level can provide for determiningif the alert particular alert is sufficiently old, or if it is ofsufficient importance that it should be escalated such that it isdisplayed in a summary page for of a higher level supervisor's computer.If a determination is made that the alert is relatively new then thealert will not be escalated.

FIG. 9 illustrates an embodiment of method 900 herein. The method 900provides for the alert analyzer module analyzing 902 data. Based on theanalysis of the data, a plurality of different alerts are generated 904.A first set of alerts from the plurality of alerts are provided 906 to afirst customer representative. This providing of the first set of alertsto the first customer representative could be done through a customerrepresentative alert page as described above. A tracking template can beprovided 908 to the customer representative. In one embodiment thistracking template will be provided to the customer representative inresponse to the customer representative selecting on an icon in acustomer representative alert page.

The tracking template can provide a number of different categories wherea user can provide an input corresponding to an action status for analert. The user input is received 910, and the alert manager module canthen process the input. In response to the input the alert database canbe updated 912 to reflect the change in the status action for a givenalert. The first customer representative can then be provided 914 withan updated page with the first set of alerts, where the updated pagewill reflect the customer representatives input through the alerttracking template.

The method can further include providing 916 a second set of alerts formthe plurality of alerts to a second customer representative. For examplethe second customer representative can be provided with a customerrepresentative alert page which shows the customers, or customer accountgroups, which the second customer representative is responsible for. Inresponse to the second customer representative interacting with thealert page the second customer representative could be provided with atracking template. The second customer representative could then inputinformation through the tracking template. The second customerrepresentative input is received 920, and the alert manager module canthen process the input. In response to the input the alert database canbe updated 922 to reflect the change in the status action for a givenalert. The second customer representative can then be provided 924 withan updated page with the second set of alerts, where the updated pagewill reflect the second customer representative's input through thealert tracking template.

Typically at any of many different points in the process, a supervisorcould log onto a supervisor computer and be provided 926 with asupervisor page alert summary showing alerts for a plurality of customerrepresentatives which are managed by the supervisor.

As detailed above various embodiments of the inventions herein providefor generating a range of different alerts, and for then presentingthese alerts to a customer representative. The customer representativecan then be presented with a tracking template which allows a customerrepresentative to input information regarding action taken in connectionwith a particular alert. The time at which the action was taken inconnection with a particular alert can be recorded, and the outcome ofthe action taken can also be recorded. The advantage of using a trackingtemplate to input information regarding the actions taken is that thecollection of data can be generated which tracks the different outcomesof various actions taken in response to various alerts. Overtime thetracking of alerts, and the actions and results of such actions taken inresponse to various alerts could provide insight into how to prioritizevarious alerts. For example, overtime it may become clear that insituations where a customer has transferred a large amount of funds intoan account, then the customer is most likely to positively respond toinvestment recommendations if they are contacted within 1 week of thetransfer of funds into the account. Whereas is the customerrepresentative does not follow up with the customer representativewithin the first week of the funds being transferred into the account,then the customer is less likely to be open to investmentrecommendations. This is but one example, and of course there arenumerous other patterns that could become apparent through analysis ofthe various alerts and the customer representative input through thetracking template.

Although only specific embodiments of the present invention are shownand described herein, the invention is not to be limited by theseembodiments. Rather, the scope of the invention is to be defined bythese descriptions taken together with the attached claims and theirequivalents.

1.-19. (canceled)
 20. A method comprising: receiving a first set ofalerts and a tracking template, wherein the first set of alerts is froma plurality of alerts, the plurality of alerts being automaticallygenerated in response to a processing system analyzing, using one ormore processors, customer data comprising customer account data,customer profile information, and market data; and providing a firsttracking template input to the processing system, wherein the firsttracking template input corresponds to an action status for a firstalert of the first set of alerts, wherein the processing system updatesan alert tracking database to indicate the action status of the firstalert based on the first tracking template input.
 21. The method ofclaim 20 wherein the first set of alerts includes at least one highpriority type of alert and wherein the processing system escalates thealert to a supervisor of the customer representative if it is determinedno action has been taken for the high priority type of alert within afirst time period.
 22. The method of claim 20 wherein the processingsystem provides a second set of alerts from the plurality of alerts to asecond customer representative, provides the second customerrepresentative with the tracking template, receives a second trackingtemplate input from the second customer representative, whichcorresponds to an action status for a second alert of the second set ofalerts, and based on the second tracking template input from the secondcustomer representative, updates the alert database to indicate thestatus of the second alert.
 23. The method of claim 20 wherein theplurality of alerts includes a plurality of different sets of alerts,wherein each of the different sets of alerts corresponds to differentsets of client account groups which are assigned to different customerrepresentatives and the processing system generates a supervisor reviewpage which shows an action status for each alert of the different setsof client account groups.
 24. The method of claim 23 further comprisingreceiving a status action field, for each of a plurality alerts storedin the alert tracking database, with the status action field having oneof a plurality of predetermined possible status conditions and whereinthe tracking template provides for a plurality of possible statusconditions and these possible status conditions correspond to theplurality of predetermined possible status conditions provided for inthe alert tracking database.
 25. The method of claim 20 wherein thetracking template provides a plurality of predetermined statusconditions which a customer representative can select from to indicatean action status for a corresponding alert.
 26. The method of claim 20,wherein the background information comprises data about the customer'sunder performing portfolio.
 27. The method of claim 20, wherein thebackground information comprises data about a liquidation of thecustomer's portfolio value.
 28. The method of claim 20, wherein thebackground information comprises data about a large deposit to thecustomer's portfolio.
 29. A method comprising: receiving a customerrepresentative alerts page showing a plurality of alerts for customeraccounts which the customer representative is responsible for, andwherein the plurality of alerts are stored in an alerts database withalerts information comprising an action status for each of the pluralityof different alerts, the plurality of alerts and alerts data beingautomatically generated in response to analysis of customer datacomprising account data, customer profile information, and market data;providing a selection of an alert on the customer representative alertspage; receiving a tracking template which allows for input to the alertsdatabase to update an action status for an alert shown on the customerrepresentatives alerts page and wherein the processing system providesan alerts summary page to a supervisor who supervises multiple customerrepresentatives, wherein the alerts summary page identifies a pluralityof customer representatives supervised by the supervisor, and showsalerts which have been provided to each of the plurality of customerrepresentatives, and shows a corresponding action status for each of theplurality of alerts.
 30. The method of claim 29 further comprising:providing a first status action input through the tracking template fora first alert in the customer representative alert page indicating thata change in a status action has occurred for the first alert, whereinthe processing system updates an action status for the first alert inthe alerts database in response to the first status action input;receiving an updated customer representative alerts page to reflect thechange in the status action for the first alert.
 31. The method of claim30 wherein the processing system updates the alerts summary page toreflect the change in status action for the first alert.
 32. The methodof claim 29 further including: wherein the alerts included in thecustomer representative page includes at least a first level prioritytype of alert and a second level priority type of alert; and wherein thealerts included in the summary alerts page include the first levelpriority type of alert, but do not include the second level prioritytype of alert.
 33. The method of claim 29 wherein the tracking templateincludes a plurality of predetermined status action fields which updatethe status action for an alert.
 34. The method of claim 33 wherein theplurality of predetermined status action fields includes at least thefollowing status action fields: a closed—canceled status condition, aclosed—unsuccessful status condition, a closed—no further actionrequired status condition, and a closed—opportunity created statuscondition.
 35. The method of claim 29 wherein the alerts summary pageincludes a first table which identifies a plurality of customerrepresentatives supervised by the supervisor, and shows an action statusfor each of a plurality of alerts which have been generated for each ofthe plurality of the customer representatives.
 36. The method of claim35 wherein the alerts summary page includes a second table whichidentifies the plurality of customer representatives and showscorresponding alerts generated for each of the plurality of customerrepresentatives.
 37. A system comprising: a non-transitory computerreadable medium comprising computer readable program code embodiedtherein; and a processor that can read the non-transitory computerreadable medium to execute the computer readable program code toimplement a method comprising: receiving a first set of alerts and atracking template, wherein the first set of alerts is from a pluralityof alerts, the plurality of alerts being automatically generated inresponse to a processing system analyzing, using one or more processors,customer data comprising customer account data, customer profileinformation, and market data; and providing a first tracking templateinput to the processing system, wherein the first tracking templateinput corresponds to an action status for a first alert of the first setof alerts, wherein the processing system updates an alert trackingdatabase to indicate the action status of the first alert based on thefirst tracking template input.
 38. The method of claim 37 wherein thefirst set of alerts includes at least one high priority type of alertand wherein the processing system escalates the alert to a supervisor ofthe customer representative if it is determined no action has been takenfor the high priority type of alert within a first time period.
 39. Themethod of claim 37 wherein the processing system provides a second setof alerts from the plurality of alerts to a second customerrepresentative, provides the second customer representative with thetracking template, receives a second tracking template input from thesecond customer representative, which corresponds to an action statusfor a second alert of the second set of alerts, and based on the secondtracking template input from the second customer representative, updatesthe alert database to indicate the status of the second alert.
 40. In acomputer network a method for utilization and tracking of alerts, themethod comprising: analyzing, using one or more processors, customerdata; and automatically generating a plurality of alerts in response tothe analyzing customer data; providing a first set of alerts from theplurality of alerts to a first customer representative; providing thefirst customer representative with a tracking template; receiving afirst tracking template input from the first customer representative,wherein the first tracking template input corresponds to an actionstatus for a first alert of the first set of alerts; and based on thefirst tracking template input, updating an alert tracking database toindicate the action status of the first alert.
 41. The method of claim40 further including: wherein the first set of alerts includes at leastone high priority type of alert; determining if no action has been takenby the customer representative for the high priority type of alertwithin a first time period; and escalating the alert to a supervisor ofthe customer representative if it is determined that no action has beentaken within the first time period.
 42. The method of claim 40 furtherincluding: providing a second set of alerts from the plurality of alertsto a second customer representative; providing the second customerrepresentative with the tracking template; receiving a second trackingtemplate input from the second customer representative, whichcorresponds to an action status for a second alert of the second set ofalerts; and based on the second tracking template input from the secondcustomer representative, updating the alert database to indicate thestatus of the second alert.
 43. The method of claim 40 furtherincluding: wherein the plurality of alerts includes a plurality ofdifferent sets of alerts, wherein each of the different sets of alertscorresponds to different sets of client account groups which areassigned to different customer representatives; and generating asupervisor review page which shows an action status for each alert ofthe different sets of client account groups.